


Down by the Shore

by moneyofthemind



Category: Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon)
Genre: post!canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-21 00:11:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6030991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moneyofthemind/pseuds/moneyofthemind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Original Post: http://moneyofthemind.tumblr.com/post/128597670791/down-by-the-shore</p></blockquote>





	Down by the Shore

“Come on! Hurry!”

“We’re coming Greg! We’re coming, hold your horses!”

“We have to hurry if you wanna talk to Wirt!”

His parents stopped, their decent down the hill slowed as they looked over at each other, and then down at the small boy who was continuing, oblivious to his parents’ struggle. His dad looked over and shrugged, then continued, his wife following close behind.

As the family of three came to the bottom of the hill, the woman grabbed her son’s shoulder, and kneeled down next to him. “Greg, honey. We can’t talk to Wirt anymore.” Greg frowned at her, obviously slightly frustrated. “Yeah we can. All we gotta do is call for him, and he never ignores me, because I’m his best brother!” She smiled softly, her smile full of sadness, “Wirt can’t talk to us, because Wirt is gone.”

Greg pulled his shoulder out of her grip softly, “Wirt isn’t here right now, but if we keep going we can talk to him where he is.” He turned without waiting for a response, continuing into the woods. Her husband walked up and grabbed her hand, “Come on Lily, just humor him for a bit. He’s lost his brother, it’s going to be hard to get over.” She sighed softly and nodded, as her husband pulled her after their wayward son.

As they broke the cover of a few bushes, they saw Greg. He was kneeling by the shore of a large lake. They approached slowly as Greg dragged his fingers along the surface. They kneeled down beside him.

“Greg, honey, are you alright?”

He smiled, and looked up over at his mother. “Yeah! You guys wanna talk to Wirt now?” He reached down into his pocket, pulling out a small rock. He quickly pulled out a marker, drawing on a face. His smile was growing even brighter as he stood up again. He hefted back his small arm and yelled, “Wirt! Wirt I’m here!” as he threw the stone into the middle of the lake. The stone hit the surface, throwing water into the air as it sank to the depths of the lake, the small face disappearing.

It was still. His parents looked onto the lake as the ripples reached the shore. His mom sighed once more, and stood, quickly followed by her husband. Grabbing Greg’s hand, she began to pull him away from the shore, “He’s not coming sweetie. We have to go.”

Greg ripped his hand away, “No, no! We have to wait for Wirt!” He started yelling, calling for Wirt, as his mother grabbed his hand once more, and started pulling him back. He was dragged kicking to the edge of the trees.

As she turned around to reprimand her son, a glimpse of something made Lily stop in her tracks. A thin coating of what appeared to be crimson sand had covered the surface of the lake, broken here and there with streaks of black. Stuck in her trance, Greg easily pulled free from her grip and ran back the edge of the water, his father trying to grab him as he ran past, his fingers barely brushing his arm.

“See Mom! See, I told you he would come!”

He cupped a hand to the side of his mouth, and waved his hand in the air, “I’m over here! Wirt, over here!”

A figure was forming out the red sand, and at Greg’s calls flipped toward the family. The young parents were terrified by this point, having no idea what was going on. They both rushed forward to try and block their son from any harm. The sand had bunched itself into a ball over the humanoid figure, and was pulsing as it flew around the body. It gradually began to slow as the parents neared the shore. All of a sudden, the sand funneled down to the center of the lake, disappearing into the depths, leaving only a figure floating above the water.

Frozen once again in shock, the parents did nothing as the figure walked down to Greg, losing distance as color flooded into his body. Greg smiled wide and lifted up his arms. The figure picked him up and spun him in a circle, loud laughter leaving it’s mouth. As the final details pronounced themselves on it’s face, Lily’s face went pale.

“Wirt…?” She whispered to herself, quietly enough that only her and her husband heard her. His gaze flew to her face, then back to ‘Wirt’.

“Oh my goodness! Greg, you’ve gotten heavy! What have you been eating?” Wirt laughed as he spun his half-brother in the air, feigning distress as he hung Greg low over the water. Greg giggled and started play-screaming as his hands brushed the water’s surface. “I’m not heavy, your heavy! Everyone knows big kids are heavier than little kids!”

“Oh yeah, Candy Pants? Then how come I can float?”

“I just haven’t learned how to float yet, but I bet when I do, I’ll be able to float lighter-er than you ever have!” Greg giggled again, and Wirt secured his arms around his middle and started floating toward the edge of the water. Setting Greg down on his feet, he ruffled the younger’s hair and laughed, “Well, I’ll make you a deal. When you can float, we’ll have a race, hmm?”

“Yeah!” Greg nodded his head quickly, “I’ll beat you by a bunch!”

“Sure Greg. Sure you will.” Wirt chuckled then looked up at the two adults, the smile falling from his face. “Oh, I-I didn’t notice… you guys were here.” He planted his feet on the ground next to his brother. His hand began to scratch his head awkwardly, “Um, uh. Ho-how are you? I guess?”

Tears gathered in her eyes. There was her baby. Her little baby Wirt was back and standing in front of her. She took a single step forward, a tear running down her cheek. A small smile grew on her face, and she ran toward her child. “Wirt! Oh my little boy!” She kneeled down next to him and wrapped her arms around Wirt’s abnormally cold body, burying her face in his shoulder, Greg’s dad close behind her. She stayed there for a bit, just absorbing Wirt’s presence. She jerked her head up quickly, and grabbed the sides of Wirt’s face, turning it this way and that. “Are you ok? What happened? Where were you? What was that thing with the sand?” Her questions rattled off her tongue, giving Wirt no time to respond.

He backed away from her hands quickly, rubbing his hands over the places his mom had grabbed him. “I-I missed you too mom, but I gotta do something before you drown me with questions, o-ok?” She nodded softly and backed away, grabbing her husband’s hand as Wirt turned to Greg once again. “Can you run and grab it for me?”

Greg stood up straight and saluted, then turned and ran to the edge of the forest. Wirt sat down on the ground, his legs crossed, to wait. Greg was shuffling around an old log, suddenly exclaiming loudly as he dived down into the leaves. He reemerged holding something underneath his arm. It appeared to be an old lamp. He quickly ran back over to Wirt, who pulled a small bottle out from under his cloak.

Greg kneeled down as he placed the lamp on the ground in front of Wirt. Slowly opening the lamp’s hatch, he poured the oil into a small compartment, sighing in content as the flame grew to a large healthy size. His form shimmered for a fraction of a second, then two small nubs appeared on each side of his head. They slowly sprouted outward, flourishing into large branches, each of them expanding as the oil was poured. When the oil was gone, Wirt set down the bottle and the branches stopped growing.

“Well Greg? They look alright?”

Greg stood and went over to Wirt’s side and began poking about in the large, antler like branches. After a few seconds, Greg declared, “These are grade A antlers o’ brother o’ mine!”

Chuckling again, Wirt stood and ruffled Greg’s hair, “Thanks Greg. And they’re not antlers! For the last time, they’re branches!” Greg shrugged and continued looking up at the large branches.

Wirt turned back to his mom, and step-dad. “You had, uh- questions?”

His parents looked at the branches that sprouted from their child’s head. “Well, I have some now.”

**Author's Note:**

> Original Post: http://moneyofthemind.tumblr.com/post/128597670791/down-by-the-shore


End file.
